Method of treating mica.



.it flexible. .mica is very frangible, and that it can not,

. UNITED STATES PATENT ormon JOHN P.-WOODS BECKMAN,.QF PARNASSU S, PENNSYLVANIA.

METHOD 0! TREATING 1110A.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 17, 1908.

Application filed January 27, 1908. Serial No. 412,900.

To all whom it may concern."

Be it known that I, J OHN, Pierson WOOD BEoKM n, a subject of the Kingof Sweden, residing at, Parnassus, in the county of Westmoreland and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Method of Treating Mica, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention has relation to a method of treating mica for the purpose of rendering It is well known that ordinary be bent without cracking and breaking, which makes its .use difiicult orimpo ssible for many purposes for whichit .is otherwise specially adapted by reason of its insulating and other qualities.

The purpose of my invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive method of treatment, whereby ordinary mica may be made flexible, sothat it can be readily bent without injury.

In accordance with my invention, I take sheets of mica of any desired thickness and immerse them in a bath of molten metal, in which I allow'them to remain forya period depending somewhat upon the thickness of" the sheets. I have secured excellent results with sheets of about one-thirty second of an inch in thickness, by allowing them to repear that a substantial physical change oc-' ours in the structure of the mica. This realthough when the sheets are removed show very little,

sult is not efi'ected by-the deposition of the metal upon the surface of the mica, ince, from the bath, some of the metal may adhere thereto, yet ,this readily peels or flakes oil, and when it has been so maining surfaces of It will be understood that either the whole or any portion of a mica sheet may be treated in] accordance with my invention,

. only that portion which is treated being rendered flexible. .The portion of a sheet which is-not actually immersed in the bath, al-

though it may be highly heated, does not become flexible.

By this simple and inexpensive method on: treatment, I am enabled toproduce mica experienced in using the ordinary mica, by reason of its extreme frangibility.

I claim: V

1. The method of treating mica to render it, flexible, which'consists in immersing it in a molten bath, substantially 2.1 The method of treating mica to render it flexible, which consists in immersing it in. I a-bath of molten metal, substantially as deas described.

scribed.

3. The method of treating mica to render it flexible, which consists in immersing it in a bath of molten aluminum, substantially as described. 7

4. The method of treating mica to render it flexible, which consists in subjecting the mica in sheet form to the action of a bath of molten metal, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand.

JOHN, P. WOODS BECKMAN.

Witnesses H. M. Conwm, Geo. H. PARMIELEE;

removed, the re-' the mica appear to if any, tracesof the metal.

which is very flexible and which can be used 4 for .a variety of purposes, where difficulty is. 

